Gallery Expiration

Gallery expiration lets you set a date and time after which a gallery is no longer accessible to visitors. This is useful for time-limited proofing sessions, seasonal mini sessions, or any situation where you want gallery access to automatically end.

How to Set It Up

1. Go to Sunshine > Galleries and create or edit a gallery
2. In the General Options tab, find the Expiration field
3. Select a date and time when the gallery should expire
4. Save the gallery

Leave the field blank if the gallery should remain accessible indefinitely.

How It Works

Before Expiration

While the gallery is still active, visitors see a notice on the gallery page that reads: "This gallery expires on [date]". This gives your clients a clear deadline to view images, make selections, or place orders.

After Expiration

Once the expiration date passes, the gallery becomes inaccessible. Visitors who navigate to the gallery see a message: "The gallery [name] expired on [date] and is no longer accessible". The gallery images are not displayed and purchases cannot be made.

This applies to both the gallery listing and individual image pages within the gallery.

Administrators

Administrators always have full access to expired galleries. When viewing an expired gallery as an admin, you'll still see the expiration notice but the gallery content is fully visible. This lets you review or manage the gallery without removing the expiration.

Notes

• Expiration blocks both viewing and purchasing. Once a gallery expires, visitors cannot view images, add items to cart, or complete orders from that gallery.
• The expiration date uses your WordPress site's timezone setting (configured under Settings > General in WordPress).
• Expiring a gallery does not delete it. The gallery and all its images remain intact — they're just hidden from visitors. You can remove the expiration date at any time to make the gallery accessible again. If you want expired galleries to be automatically deleted after a certain number of days, see Privacy & Data Retention.
• Expiration works alongside other access controls. A gallery can be both password-protected and have an expiration date. The password is checked first, then the expiration.
• The expiration notice template can be overridden in your theme by copying templates/gallery/expires.php and templates/gallery/expired.php to your theme's sunshine/gallery/ folder.
• For additional access control options, see Gallery Types and Gallery Access Types.